Eragon was excellent

Eragon (pronounced air-uh-gon) is a great fantasy movie for all ages. It is full of action, adventure, sorcery, monsters, princesses, and heroes. I have not yet read Christopher Paolini’s best-selling novel upon which this is based, so this movie review will concern only the story presented on film.

The story begins telling the history of a land where great warriors once flew around on dragons and protected the people. Their demise came when one of those dragon riders named Galbatorix (played by Oscar winner John Malkovich) decided to challenge the others and eventually killed them all, thus putting an end to the dragon riders and placing the kingdom under his tyrannical rule.

Years later, a princess (the beautiful Sienna Guillory) manages to steal a ‘stone’ from Malkovich and escapes into the nearby forest with it. A vicious wizard (Robert Carlyle of Trainspotting) is sent after the stone, but his efforts are thwarted at the last minute when the princess magically teleports it away. In another part of the forest, a young hunter named Eragon (Edward Speelers, in his debut) finds the stone and brings it home. Shortly thereafter, the stone turns out to be an egg and hatches a baby dragon.

The birth of the dragon marks a huge event in the world, but Eragon doesn’t immediately realize the power that has been bestowed upon him. He’s just a nobody farm boy. When one of the local good guys (Oscar winner Jeremy Irons) finds out what is going on, he helps Eragon realize his potential as a new dragon rider. Back at the kingdom, Malkovich and his wizard unleash an army to stop Eragon from building up the forces to overthrow the tyrant.

For being rated PG, this movie had quite a bit of violence. Plenty of people die by the sword while others are torched by fiery dragon’s breath. There’s also a couple of battle sequences plus a great aerial dragon fight. I though the visual effects were incredible, especially with the animation for the dragon. All in all, this movie looked great and is chock full of action and adventure.

The actors all did a great job, including newcomer Edward Speelers, who looks like a young Thomas Jane. Jeremy Irons turned in a great performance as the mentor character, and I think he more than made up for the misfire that was Dungeons & Dragons. I think John Malkovich is at his best when playing a villain (In the Line of Fire) though I wished he had more screen time. All of his scenes were just him getting up in Robert Carlyle’s face and growling threats. Hopefully, he’ll have a much bigger part if a sequel is made.

This movie was directed by Stefen Fangmeier, who has previously worked as a second unit director on Galaxy Quest and Dreamcatcher. The majority of Fangmeier’s film work has been in the form of visual effects, for which he has worked on such movies as Terminator 2 and Twister, and has been nominated for the Oscar three times. I think he did a good job with this movie and I only noticed a few minor continuity errors. He did have the benefit of assembling a good cast, which can make the director’s job a lot easier. Usually when a former visual effects supervisor or cinematographer decides to direct, the results aren’t so good, but I think Fangmeier did a good job.

Screenplay credits are given solely to Peter Buchman, who has previously worked on Jurassic Park III. He’s got three more movies being made, including one called Guerilla, about the communist Che Guevera’s trip to New York to address the United Nations. The novel upon which this is based was written by Christopher Paolini, who was only a teenager at the time he wrote this. Given his age, I think he did a fine job of writing and creating an original story and characters. I’ve read conflicting reports of how well this movie adheres to the original story, but I can’t confirm or deny any of those claims since I have not read the book.

It’s a shame this movie is not doing better at the box office. Although it isn’t nearly as good as the Lord of the Rings or Harry Potter series, it still tells a great story with likable characters. I think the problem may be that this movie was made too soon after the book was published. This is part of a series, and only the second novel is out. I think that perhaps the studios should have waited until the complete series has been published before putting out the movie. I’ve also heard that the second novel, Eldest, is not as good as the first.

Ultimately, I really enjoyed Eragon. I love the fantasy genre and found this movie to be delightful new addition to the handful of really good fantasy movies out there. I will gladly purchase the DVD when it is released.